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Yes, those are good examples of scenes which have become too pat IMO too. In fact, most of the older movies you watch are annoying as far as people driving-and-talking are concerned, don't you think? I mean, the background has almost no relation to what the driver is doing. The good news is, though, with older films, is we've got a plot INSTEAD of just special effects, eh?

Women throwing drinks in men's faces is almost as common as a man "getting fresh" and stealing a kiss only to get his face slapped. The funniest spoof of this is in the Quiet Man when Wayne catches O'Hara's slap!

Card games are also overdone, I totally agree. The hands that win are so RARE ... but hey, it's the movies;-)

WRT your #4, isn't this the way it is with your spouse? I guess they can't show the silent treatment persona non grata for days in movies effectively;-)

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This can be a really good topic, thanks for starting it. I can't think of any other movie pet peeves at the moment (mind mushy at the moment) other than:

5. Movies that are made from books - I read a lot and I know that movies (at best?) can only capture the highlights from most novels, the medium is different, blah blah blah. But I can only think of a couple of films (other than the aforementioned To Kill A Mockingbird) I really liked which I saw AFTER I read the book though I don't know how successful they were. My guess is that they did NOT do very well at the box office. But they were faithful to the book. The two I can think of off the top of my head are The Great Train Robbery (written and directed by the author of the novel - Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame) and The Day of the Jackal (no, not the Bruce Willis remake).

Otherwise, I'm sorely disappointed in most film adaptations 'cause they are either entirely different from the book (Absolute Power comes to mind) or they miss the point. I guess, more recently, the Harry Potter films have been fairly faithful to the book and successful at the box office (and I don't know about the LOTR series since I never read the books).

I'm sure this comes off as a rant, but it's not meant to be one. I love both mediums, I indulge in both to the extreme, but never the two shall meet? Don't know;-)

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One of mine has always been when the "stars" sit down to eat and all the food looks inviting and all of a sudden someone puts a few peas on their fork and pretends to chew throughout the scene. Ugh. Even the male actors took a nibble out of a sandwich instead of a healthy bite.

Movie goers of the Depression whould have scoffed that sandwich down with two bites.

Another peeve is cigarette smoking. If your holding a cigarette for crying out loud smoke it. There are those that take a weak drag, don't inhale and just blow the smoke out (how phoney).

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Good topic stlgal! I feel the same way about most of the aforementioned peeves. Especially the driving one....makes me nervous when they don't watch the road - I'm always waitin' for an accident. Oh, and the food thing mongo mentioned drives me nuts too...I always feel like sayin' "Shut up and eat!". Here's a list of my personal peeves...

#1. Fainting. So many movies have a scene were a woman puts her hand to her brow, sighs, and quietly faints. First of all, I've never fainted in my entire life BUT if I were to do so I'm sure it wouldn't be very graceful. I don't care what traumatic experience is goin' on in my life, the last thing I'm gonna do is fall on my face. Oh, and I'll throw "swooning" in too. How many of you ladies out there have ever "swooned"? The only allowance I'll give for the fainting/swooning thing is if the woman is wearing a corset. If I had to wear one of the suckers I'd probably pass out too.

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I just caught myself the other night waiting and watching to see if some actor was really going to smoke the cigarette he lighted or just kind of do some weird french inhale and hope it looked passable. One thing I love about the movie "The Birds" is that all of the smokers seem to do it with such relish, you get the feeling they are satisfying a genuine nicotine fit. I wish Tippi Hedren or Suzanne Pleshette no ill will or bad health but I am sorry, those great scenes outside the playground jungle-gym and talking to Mitch on the phone just would not have worked with fake smoking.

I have another little pet-peeve that would really only matter to a locksmith or a criminal. To pick a lock requires two separate tools, a pick and a tension wrench. It requires 2 hands and you have to get down on your knees. It never takes as fast as it looks in the movies. It can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. But when you see it in the movie they just sashay up to the door and with one hand they pick the lock in 2 seconds. Impossible. I know this not because I lead a life of crime but because when I was a kid one of my stepfathers was a locksmith and taught me how to pick locks.

other little things:

-souffles and cakes do not ever rise so much that they fill the whole room with funnyfoodmess. I know this probably originally had some comic effect but I see it too much and sometimes in serious movies.

-some of the movie props that are portrayed as being push-button operated, in real life, would be very mechanically complex and impractical to engineer. Especially popular in the 50s and 60s. Just push a button!

-just RUN AWAY from the decrepit slow as molasses zombie/monster/frankenstein. Dont fall, dont trip, dont become frozen in fear. Just move your little legs away from the danger.

I know you are probably all thinking I am no fun and/or cranky. But I only got peevish about these things after seeing them 100+ times.

Mike

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I, too, have noticed the smoking thing. I mentioned to classicsfan here while back that Bette Davis didn't inhale, and several others (Marlene Dietrich, Lucille Ball) only took the aforementioned 'half-hits'. This was so annoying.. especially when it was a proffered cigarette. I keep thinking "why take it if you're not gonna enjoy it?!"

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I don't know if this relates to Mongo's pet peeve but my pet peeve is when somebody in a movie orders a beverage like a beer, or food and it just sits in front of them untouched. The person plops down his money for the item and takes off out the door without ever touching the ordered item. Also a personal pet peeve of mine is when I read a description of a movie that I have never seen and it sounds like an awesome movie than I see Glenn Ford is in it! I can't watch the movie without having a personal bias against this louse!

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GReat topic STLgal! Smoke the GD cigarette!!! Eat the GD food!!!! I HATE it when someone takes one drag and tosses the cigarette. Smokers NEVER do this! Stop moving the food around your plate and putting the fork in it 47 1/2 times. Also the kick in the crotch is way, WAY overused. Should be relegated with the slippery bannana peel, the pie in the face, and the pants/dress falling down. Is anyone else sick of the "good" team winning the big game ... by ONE point or run? Do they ALWAYS have to win? Is nothing EVER learned by losing a game? Does anyone notice that in solving any crime it will become nesicary at some point in the investigation to visit a strip club? Just a few of mine.

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Another thing I'm sick of is the "novelty" of turning reality on it's head. Is there any doubt that the 100 lb spandex-clad female will utterly destroy 15 or 20 well-built men? Ho Hum...That the group of misfits will triumph over the enevitably evil "normal kids"? That the smart-a$$ children have all the brains and common sense and that the parents and teachers are idiots? That is the reason why when Indiana Jones SHOOTS the sword-wielding bad guy instead of engaging him in some sort fancy combat with his whip, the audience cheers and laughs. A refreshing moment of REALITY! I think the crowd would go wild if in a film, the parent unplugs the little monsters' x-box and tells him "Shut up and do your homework!!!"

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I go ballistic over movies that are supposed to be representing the truth about an event, or somewhat historically correct, that are nothing but pure fiction and filled with false stereotypes. And, I just shake my head in disgust when I see some kind of tool or appliance that couldn't have been invented yet used in the movie as if it had been invented. Don't they have people who can do decent research and share it with movie makers in Hollywood?

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Classics brings up a good point. There's a buncha naval/maritime movies that are semi-factual but with a bunch of ca-ca-poo thrown in...I hate that! K-19, Titanic '97, Sink the Bismarck! just to name a few...

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Good points! I recall seeing an interview with Gillian Armstrong following the filming of "Little Women" '95, and she (as all directors should be!) was very conscious of getting it historically correct. They even used genuine 1860's postage on a letter from father that was only a flash on the screen, and probably wasn't even noticed by 99% of those watching, but authentic for those of us who did!

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Oh, I totally agree with classic's post. As I have said in different posts I try to get my young son's into watching classic movies and there's been many a time I've had to pause the movie and explain what REALLY happened in history. Same goes for books. I'm an avid reader and there's been times when I get so fed up with historical inaccuracy I stop reading the book!